Discussion: Tired of breaking bats

Tired of breaking batsis there any bats that have the durability for use in the senior league? From last season to now, I have broken or cracked 4 Mikes(red), 2 Melee (yellow), 2 Ambush (el), this is getting expensive. should I switch to utrip bats?...Any thoughts would be appreciated....and please...don't hijack the thread.....thanks

Mike, I feel your pain. I did the same thing my first year of Senior ball. Here's what I do now. I get a USSSA bat that swings like my senior bat and use it for all my bp sessions. When I get a new senior bat, I break it in by taking 25 1/2 swings, 25 3/4 swings and then 25 full swings. After that I use the senior bat only in games. By doing this I have had a senior bat last me all season the last 2 seasons. 7-8 tourneys both years. Maybe this will help you.

? We had a grey combat that lasted for 1000s of swings.. As far as I know it's still going.. We hit it in winter with bluedots and it never broke and I personally put some high performance shots on that bat... I wish is was mine... It was my buddy Mike Rennels bat that plays for MTC.. We had 4 of us hitting that bat at 40s winter world which we won... He gave it to a friend of ours.. He was still hitting it last year... So, I say it can be done!

? of course this was not the norm.. just stating that they could make them more durable... We have a guy still swinging his Yellow MM after 2 years.. I wish I knew how many swings he has on that bat.. My yellow MM had great performance and I was swinging that bat in the snow... If lasted a season! I hit it in BP tourneys everything.. The Blue MMs didn't make it out of breakin period.. So I say they can make a bat performance wise and durability wise better than the glass bats we are swinging now... I'm just waiting for it... I would pay $300 bucks for one bat to last me the season then $800 for four bats...

The bat companies can make a bat that is durable and has great performance. They just don't want to. It has something to do with greed. They don't want to make a bat last. If this happened, who would buy bats?

Overall sounds like some people are saying a SUPER bat is coming out in two weeks you can hit as hard as you want.

Do not know about super bat, I use a Combat Centenarian 30 oz. Started last year and used in tournaments. Still going this year. Just played a tournament with 6 games some with temp below 60 degrees. Hit 3 out and several hit fense, longest was over 315'fense with about a 10' high fense and easily cleared.

I try to cut ball. Full on hits feel like bat is crushing in. When a cut hit is used it is almost like not hitting the ball, sorta weird.

I expect my Centenarian to last 3 or 4 years for $170.

It could be some may just need to change how they contact the ball to extend the life of their bats.

Lots of good bats, the only reason I went with the Centenarian was Mad Dog. I saw him at a tour this past weekend and thanked him.

I have been evolved with testing the new senior Louisville Slugger bat. It is testing out as an equal or better then every miken, combat, Demarini senior bat I have used....and.....the bat lasted thousands of swings in 50 degree weather tiring stadium rock hard balls.

When is there a bat going to be made that won't break? I can't believe the misleading info I see on this board everyday. A group of players I know bought 6 white Combats and they all are playing great except one. It is a friend of mine in Texas. One bat broke in 40 swings. Can the bat experts explain that to me. I want one of the white Combats but it is tuff on the money side. I would love to buy 1 bat and have it last 1 year. I still have a couple of USSSA bats that I use. I lose distance but it is still round.

The bat companies are not stupid. They know the senior bats don't have durability by design. That is exactly why senior bats do not have a warranty.

While some of you may have had good runs with your bats, you were just lucky to have received a bat that was extraordinary.

If and when the durability issues are ever resolved the bat companies will be offering warranties on senior bats. That is when you can expect the price of the senior bats to be much greater than the $200 range they are now. The bat companies are in business to make money, pure and simple.

My opinion is that Miken already had the ideal senior bat, the Ultra II Legacy. The reason they don't make it anymore, "it lasted too long." I've got one right now I bought from Vinnie LV on this board. It had several thousand swings on it when I bought it 1.5 years ago. It's been to Sat BP's, league twice a week, and more tourneys than I can remember in 2 age groups, used exclusively at most of the tourney BP's, and used a lot in cold weather games. It must have close to 5000 swings by now. The paint is about gone. Still going. They were $299 with a warranty, well worth it. A lot of seniors gave up on them because they didn't give instant gratification, you had to put some swings on them to get them to open up. Once they did, they were UII-like.

Curveball, I agree they had a few bats that were durable.. they discontinued them.. the Yellow MM, the Grey combat from 6 to 7 years ago and that Miken...

like I said MY friend has a yellow MM that he's been hitting with for last two year.. he got it from a guy who had it used it for three years.. So I have seen my teammate hit this bat for roughly 600 to 700 swings and it's still going and when he nuts it.. it goes 370ish..which many on this board would call 400ft.;-) so performance is outstanding... So when I see that those think you cannot have both performance and longevity are wrong.. It can be if those Greedy bat companies wanted too.. like I said.. I would pay 300 to 400 to a bat that lasted me all season with good to great performance!

It is very hard to draw conclusions about bats because each of us is in his own sphere of information. W/o a centralized accumulator of lots of info (which won't happen) you just don't have a big enough sample to draw many conclusions.
There are also many rec players who don't don't generate the power that tournament players do and thus they are satisfied w/ durability. I see many red maxloads used by numerous players on a team last for years. Additionally comparisons of numbers of hits can be misleading for another reason. Macenko rarely broke bats. Not because of bat speed, but because he was so good and consistent that he hit the ball below center and not head on. Below center hits create a wing effect and the ball travels farther and bats last longer. Fast bat speed generators who hit the ball head on destroy bats. Comparisons are tough and I do believe greed plays a major part in the companies' decisions on durability. It is the weak hitters who fuel low durability bats and you big hitters suffer the consequences.Hopefully, Monsta and/or GSC and/or the new promised one from Tatoo, will really perform and be durable.

HJ, although I agree with most of what you are saying, and agree with types of swing, when I talk about the swings on the Legacy, it was by a whole lot of bangers, prolific HR guys. Although some of them, like Paul Salow, do hit below or above the exact center and avoid the direct square impact, the multitude of swings put on mine after I bought it were extremely strong hitters, HOF guys, known for power. Many, many of those swings were direct centered blows. The Legacy, to me, seems to defy those circumstances...............I'm on my 3rd one, all were extremely long living.

I cannot afford to buy any more SBats. I bought a New C Centanarian 30 oz; took about 150-200 BP swings rotating the barrel per suggestions on 7 year old balls (not waterlogged) in warm weather. Then I attended the NSA in Gadsden, Al where we hit the 52/275 & it got a 4" split in 8 swings. Everyone else I have spoken to has had excellent results w/this bat.

I have 2 recommendations: If you can find an Original Velocite (I have owned 18, down to 2); they suit my swing, but are EXpensive. My
2nd suggestion is the Miken Maniac 585. I have owned a stock one since 2007; I swing a 30 oz & have pounded this bat forever in BP & it is a tank (have not been able to find another). These 2 are what I plan to use in SSB w/the only SBat I have left (an orignal ASA model U2). I can't spend $700+ a year.

Wayne, our league is in the process of writing rules to ban altered bats. Please explain about the new end caps because we were about to ok replacement of end caps but weren't aware or "special" end caps. Thank you.

The end caps are completely different the as to the old ones. The old ones were flat. The new ones stick up, and look like something you could screw off with your hand. They are suppose able to tell if they have been tampered with. We'll see.

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